Taking It All Back
by peanut0565
Summary: Pepper thought she was dealing with things pretty well, with all things conciderating. Yeah, She thought she took it all extremely well.
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

_November 9th, 2008_

_7:02:23 AM_

_Pepper's Apartment_

_Malibu, California_

_Click._

_Breaking News. The famous Stark mansion up on the high rocks over looking the bay area has erupted in a ball of flames. Currently it is unknown whether or not the owner was within the house, or what had caused the explosion._

Pepper Potts set at the edge of her bed and stared in absolute horror. This was definitly not how she wanted to start the day. She had just pulled out of the shower and turned on the news, only to find her boss's house was engulped in fire.

After a moment she shook herself from her dumbfounded shock and grappled for her blackberry which was perched ontop of her little night stand next to the clock. With the dexterity of a well trained assistant she dialed her boss's number. Her world began to crumble as it went straight to voicemail.

_2:42:43 PM_

_Stark Mansion_

_Malibu, California_

Hours of pacing the perimeter that the police had set up they finally allowed her to cross the yellow tape. Still no word from Tony, though she had called his phone at least a hundred times by this time. Pepper knew after the first two hours of not answering that Tony was probably in his mansion at the time of the explosion, but kept trying the number to keep herself doing something. Hanging onto a false hope.

The police officer led her to the crew that just searched the house for sources of the fire and anything else.

"It seems there was an electrical surge of some sort that set off an explosive material in the basement. We found no one in the house thankfully." The fireman said.

If he wasn't in the house, where was he?

_November 17th, 2008_

_9:23:42 AM _

_Stark Industries_

_Malibu, California_

"Ms. Potts, You're going to have to accept that Mr. Stark was in his house at the time of the fire. No one has heard from him since. If he is still alive somewhere, He'd contact us at the very least." Greg Jilek, one of the board members, said in an exasperated tone.

"There was no body found in the house." Pepper hissed. Completely infuriated by the rate of which the board members wanted to liquidate Tony's shares and claim the company for themselves. It hadn't even been a fortnight yet, and they wanted to declare him dead.

"We are going through with this with or with out you, Ms. Potts. If you would like to transfer to another sector of SI, please state where, We are more then willing to keep you on the payroll." The man said.

"It's just not about my job here." She growled then stalked out of the room.

_November 9th, 2018_

_10:23:12 AM_

_Cemetery_

_Long Island, New York_

She knelt down to the gravesite that held no body and placed a bouquet of flowers just below the name. It was funny that they chose to bury the casket out here, next to his parents. The last decade had been funny, though that wasn't the best word to describe it.

She still worked for SI, under the same man who told her that they were going to declare her boss dead. She moved to the east coast, trailing behind him, and now made a ritual out of visiting this gravesite once a year. Mr. Jilek seemed to be rather sympathetic, and attempted to make things go smoothly for her. The entire board handled her at arms length, remembering the last time she blew up at them.

"They put me next to my parents?!" A soft voice interrupted her. She whirled around to meet the eyes of her former boss. She just stared at him for a long moment before promptly fainting.

_12:02:12 AM_

_Unknown_

_Long Island, New York_

"Pepper...Come On, Pepper.." The voice was coaxing her. "I didn't travel half the world over to get back just to have you faint on me..."

"Tony...?" She cracked her eyes open a inch to meet those eyes again. She then started to look at his face. There were new wrinkles, new scars, and his hair resembled more of a salt and pepper shaker.

"Yeah." He replied. He turned away, then she realized she was in the passenger's seat of an old Honda Accord. She felt the engine start and pur softly as he shifted it into drive and they were in motion.

Pepper continued to just stare at him, flabbergasted at the fact that he was sitting right next to her, living and breathing. She watched him, taking in every detail. Hair was longer, pulled back into a very messy pony tail; it was more gray and white then black now. He had a large scar that stretched horizontally across his neck. There was also another rather big scar on his right cheek that stretched all the way down to his jaw bone. His right eyebrow was gone. He also seemed to have old healed burn marks from the back of his ear trailing down his back.

He was wearing a long sleeve white shirt, black fingerless gloves, a pair of dark blue jeans, and what looked like a pair of black sneakers. All said clothing looked like it was just bought recently and thrown on, but removing the tags beforehand.

"You're dead..." Pepper finally stuttered.

"No, You guys declared me dead." He growled with an underscore of venom that she had never heard in his voice before.

"You just dropped off the face of the earth! No word, No message, NOTHING." Pepper returned with nearly the same tone.

"It's kind of hard to call someone when your being kidnapped!" He shouted at her, efffectively silencing her. "An explosion in my workshop, and I am no where to be found? No contact, word, anything from me. What did you think happened?!" He hissed at her.

Pepper went to open her mouth to say something in her defense but found no words. She shut it again, waited for a moment, taking a deep sigh.

"Whatever you excuse, Doesn't matter. I'm back now ready to reclaim what is mine and I need your help."


	2. Chapter 2

They had sat in silence for awhile. She simply watched him in awe. He was so different, but yet at the very same time so the same. He need for speeds known to thrill only nascar racers was still intact. They departed from Long Island going at least 90 down the freeway, heading towards New Jersey.

"What happened?" Pepper finally dared to ask, breaking the ice. Her voice soft, speaking quietly. Tony didn't answer her at first, and she was about to repeat the question louder, maybe he didn't hear me?, when he answered.

"...I was working on the suit. Jarvis alerted me to some intruders that were trying to make their way through the front door. I had told Jarvis to call the police, but before he had gotten the chance, the house went dark. I had went to call for Jarvis again, when I heard a metal object hitting something else that was metal..." He paused, his fists clenching tightly around the steering wheel and unclenching, as he took a slow measured breath.

"Next thing I knew I was in a metal crate of some sort, they had opened the door and _welcomed _me to China. My hands and feet were in big shackles and they had alot of guns on me." Pepper noticed a slight quiver pass through his body. He quieted down for a few moments, Pepper waited patiently for him to continue.

"I spent 7 years with them before they finally let me go. The last three I hitchhiked across Asia and Europe and eventually got back here." He was being vague. She knew there was more, a hell of alot more, but she didn't want to pry into him this quickly. She was still just happy to have him back.

"We're here." He said pulling into a dirt driveway leading up to an older house. Pepper had been so focused on Tony that she didn't even consider the fact that he was driving, let alone the fact of where he was taking her. "Don't mention my last name. They don't know who I really am. No one does besides you." Tony said, turning directly to her. She nodded in understanding.

He cut the engine off and emerged from the rusting old Honda. Pepper watched, waiting for a moment before removing herself from the car. She heard barking first, then was suprised when a large golden retriever came out of no where and jumped on Tony.

"Ah, Mav, Mav, Down, please..." Tony begged, pushing the dog down before ruffling the fur on top of Mav's head. "Mav?" Pepper rose an eyebrow watching the two.

"Anthony, is that you?" An elderly woman emerged from the screen door of the small green house that sat next to the two story house. "Yes, Rita, it is." Tony called back moving forward to greet the woman. She was holding a basket of vegetables. "Where have you been all day, boy?" She asked him in a mock angry tone. "You and Jacob were suppose to help me with the chores."

"Rita, You knew I was going out today. I told you that yesterday, and I will deal with Jacob later. He promised me he'd help you... I have someone I want you to meet." Tony glanced over to Pepper, waving her over.

She moved with decent pace, gliding over to Tony and Rita. "Rita, This is Pepper." Tony gestured towards Pepper. She smiled and greeted the elder woman. "So this is your Pepper. It's so nice to finally meet you dear. I've heard so many things from Anthony about you." She smiled sweetly.

Pepper put a lid on the shock she received from that last statement. _His Pepper?_ "Anthony, why don't you go find Jacob, he's around here somewhere, avoiding work as usual." Rita shook her head in dismay then departed, going back into the green house, shutting the door behind her.

Once it was safely shut, she turned to Tony with raised eyebrows. "Anthony?" She asked with a playful smirk. He gave her an amused smile. "She's old fashion." That was his answer as he took her by the hand and led her into the house, okay, dragged her into the house. She was caught by suprise again as the sudden physical contact. She didn't have time to bring up the whole ownership over her comment.

"Jake? Jake You in here?" Tony called out through the house. They stopped in what looks like a living room. It was small, but efficent it had a chair, couch, a rug, a table and a decent size television.

"You're back early, Tony." A young boy's face appeared from over the railing that was the upstairs. "Yes, now get your ass down here." Tony replied curtly. The boy ran down stairs immediatly, he couldn't have been more then nine or ten. He had dark brown hair that was in the style of a buzz cut but grown out a little. "You were suppose to help Rita today." Tony scolded the boy. Jake looked down at his feet bashfully.

"Who is she?" Jake asked, taking notice of Pepper finally. "This is the woman I told you about, remember?" Tony said. Jake seemed to focus on her then, staring at her intently. She felt slightly unnerved by the look. "Can she really help us?" Jake asked, looking to Tony who nodded in return.

"Pepper, this is Jake, my son. Jake this is Pepper." This one was too large to hide, and she felt light headed again. For the second time that day, Pepper Potts fainted.


	3. Chapter 3

"You really have a son?" Pepper asked, now sitting in the living room on the couch, Tony next to her. After she had come to the second time she was on the couch. Tony nodded.

"He's eight, his mother died giving birth..." Tony looked towards the kitchen and sighed. "It's complicated." He said with a sigh. "As is anything with you." Pepper muttered. Tony turned back to look at her.

"What are you doing these days?" He asked. "I still work for the company, after you ... left, they offered me the same position under Greg Jilek." Pepper answered. "Greg... Oh, The only one I semi-liked on the board." Tony smiled slightly. "I'm glad you did alright."

Pepper glared at him, the past decade had been anything but _alright. _There was a hole that was left in his wake, and he seemed to completely miss how she was more worn down now then the last time he saw her.

"How's Rhodey?" He asked suddenly. Pepper thought for a second, She hadn't spoken to the colonel in years. They had tried to maintain a friendship after Tony left, but after a year it was clear that the only reason they were friends was because they maintained Tony's life, which was a two person job at the time.

"I haven't spoken to him in years." She answered in a sigh. "Oh." Tony said in a meloncholic tone. "Do you have a computer or laptop I could use?" Tony asked her. Pepper shook her head.

"Its at my apartment, It was my day off today." She replied. Tony swore silently. "Could you do me a favor?" He asked. "Anything." Pepper said almost instantly. "Find Rhodey for me?" "Sure, He can't be that hard to track down." "Thanks."

There was a long pause. "It's getting late, I should take you back to your car now..." He trailed off, looking to the floor.

--

The ride back was quiet for the first five or so minutes. Pepper had been brooding in the passenger seat, and then the question finally popped into her head. One she should have thought of asking about first. "How'd you know where I'd be?"

"I didn't." Pause. "I...had read in the paper something about Stark Industries, and some foundation that was set up in my honor, and that was how I found out that I was declared dead. From there, I just wanted to see my _grave_. I didn't realize the significance of the date until I found you there." He explained.

It was dark out by the time Tony had pulled into a parking spot right behind Pepper's silver audi. "Thats' my car." Tony said, looking at the liscense plate, which still had his last name plastered on it. "Did you forget you left the mansion and the cars to me in your will? When did you do that by the way?" Tony smiled.

"I changed it about four days before the shit hit the fan." He answered, smiling. "Why?" She asked. "I couldn't let Jarvis be put in the hands of some idiot." He sat there for a moment thinking. "...I was paying you for putting up with me. Dealing with all that, you deserved it." He answered. She could tell from his face that, that wasn't all of it. As with everything else today, He had been revealing alot, but hiding ALOT more.

"How's Jarvis and the mansion?" He asked quietly. "Alright, Jarvis has been in hibernation for the last 6 years, since I moved out here." She replied with a sigh. "Would it be too much trouble to ask you to get two tickets to Malibu?" Another favor. "I will pay you back as soon as I have some money."

"You're completely broke?" He nodded. "Never thought I'd see the day." She chuckled, as he shot her a mock glare. "Thats not funny."

"I'll see what I can do." He smiled and hugged her spontaniously. She nearly melted in his embrace. "Thank you Pepper." He whispered into her ear, and letting her go.

She got out of the car, as he did as well, walking her the short distance between the two cars. "How can I get a hold of you?" She asked suddenly as he opened the door for her and she sat in, as he leaned on the door of the car.

"Hmm... Rita doesn't have a phone... Maybe it would be better if I get to you. What's your address?" Pepper looked around the car quickly, pulling out an impromptu piece of scratch paper and a pen. She scribbled down the address and handed it to him.

"When should I come?" He asked, looking down at the address. "I could get the tickets within the week. So, How about next Sunday?" She asked. "Sounds perfect." "Okay, See you next Sunday then." She said as he took a step away from the car.

"Thanks again Pepper." He said as she closed the door and he began to walk away.


	4. Chapter 4

That week went by far slower then she would have liked. Even though the workload was the same, she was being impatient. Which she never is, under _most_ circumstances, but this was not under the category of _most_ circumstances.

Pepper had managed to convince her boss that she should go over to the west coast factories and get updates on their progress, and all of that. Mainly bullshit, but it worked, and Mr. Jilek even offered to her the company jet, which was originally Tony's jet. She bought herself at least two weeks with Tony there, maybe even three if she played her cards right. She also had looked up Colonel James Rhodes, and suprising herself she found he was still in the same area, working out of Fort Edwards.

When Sunday finally came around she did everything she could to keep herself from pacing and staring out the window of her apartment building. It was around eleven in the morning when she heard a knock on her door. She had been pouring herself her second mug of coffee. She set it down carefully before rushing to the door and swinging it open.

"Pepper?" It was his son. She looked down at him, trying to conseal her disappointment. "Jake?" She answered in return. The boy was wearing a long sleeve green shirt that had patchs in the elbows, a wore out pair of blue jeans, and a pair of brown sneakers.

"Where's your father?" She asked him, looking past him into the hallway to find no one else. "He's waiting outside, couldn't make it up the steps, and we couldn't find an elevator anywhere." Jake answered. Pepper was suprised by this, Tony seemed rather strong, at least for a healthy person, when they first encountered each other.

"Is he alright?" She had to ask. Jake shrugged, "Yeah." Was his answer. "Hang on a second, Let me just grab some things and we can go, alright?" She told Jake, then ran back into the back of her apartment to grab her laptop case and her suitcase.

"Are you coming with us?" Jake asked as she returned and closed the door behind her, locking it. She nodded then proceeded to walk with the boy down the four flights of stairs to outside the building. This was when she saw Tony; He was sitting on the bench with two backpacks at his side and a pair of old crutchs. He had cut his hair down since the last time she saw him. It seemed to take on the shape and form it had before he left. He was wearing the same set of clothing that he had been wearing a week ago, but they seemed to be clean.

As soon as he spotted them he tried to stand up, looking like he was struggling a bit. Jake ran to him instantly and helped him up, and handed him the set of crutchs. Pepper joined them slowly, watching the two. "Are you alright?" She asked him. He smiled weakly and nodded. "I'm fine."

She let it go for the time being. "The jet is ready for us, where's your car?" She asked looking around. "That was Rita's car, I had just borrowed it for the day. We took the bus up here." Tony explained. "Oh." Pepper mentally kicked herself, he had told her that he was broke, but it was still hard to imagine that he was for-real broke. Then again it was hard to comprehend the fact that he was standing infront of her living, and he had a son. It was alot to digest.

"Alright... Come on." She led them to the parking garage where she kept hers'. "Mr. Jilek has let me borrow the company jet, so it will just be us, and we can leave as soon as we get there." She smiled back at them. Jake was staring at her with wide eyes, he was really excited. Tony just smiled. She watched him from the corner of her eye for a long moment, His steps were ackward, it was as if both his legs and back were bothering him.

"Here we are." She said pulling up to the car and unlocking them. Jake climbed into the back seat, taking the backpacks with him and the crutchs. Tony used the car for leverage as he made his way around to the passengers seat and edged into it slowly. "Jake, put your seat belt on." Tony looked at him for a moment to make sure the boy did as he was told.

--

The flight had been quiet. Tony had laid down on the couch that was bolted down to the main area and quickly fell asleep. Jake had taken the seat in the back of the couch and had his eyes glued to the window, watching the country pass by from below. Pepper took the seat next to Jake and had been on her laptop the entire time, occasionally glancing to her companions.

Pepper had taken this chance to get to know Jake a little better, while she was typing on the laptop. "You like flying?" She asked the young boy. Jake turned to her and smiled broadly. "Yeah, This is my first time. It's so cool, its' everything Tony said it would be!" He spoke excitedly. "You're first time? How'd you get to the United States?" She asked, confused. "We got on a ship and it took forever to get to here... I don't like ships..." He said in slight disgust. "The United States is so big..." He said in amazement. She chuckled quietly.

There was a long pause before Pepper asked another question. "Why do you call your dad by his first name?" Jake glanced to her and shrugged. "Everyone else calls him Tony." He stated it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. She stared at him for a moment, before he turned again to stare out the window.

Pepper didn't ask anymore questions for the rest of the flight. Tony slept like a rock the entire time. He only started to stir when the jet was pulling down to land on the private landing strip at smaller airport just outside of Malibu. When they were ready to get off, Jake had gotten up and helped his father get up. Now was the hard part, getting on the plane didn't require steps, but getting off did. Jake was being a saint for how old he was, and helping Tony down the steps slowly. When Pepper had offered, Jake sent her the death glare and Tony declined politely. The boy was definitly protective of his father.

There was a taxi on the tarmac a little ways a way, and after a few minutes They finally nestled, rather snuggly in the back seat, as Pepper gave the driver the address. The whole ride there, Jake was blabbering on about how cool the plane was, while looking out the window to the large city as they drove through it.

They pulled up to the gates of the mansion and ended the taxi drive. Pepper went to the post with the control panel, flipping it open and punched in a few digits. The large iron gates swung open in response.

"This is where we're staying?!" Jake exclaimed looking up to his father with big round eyes. "Yeah." Tony huffed, starting to head up the driveway. Jake fell in step with him, holding the backpacks, one over each shoulder. Pepper trailed behind, It had been six years since she returned to the mansion. Even though she had keys and free reign, she always got a hotel when she had to come and get the reports from the west coast factories, and when she came with her boss to the meetings.

"I don't know how to get Jarvis up again, When he reccommended hibernation he said something about needing to manually starting him up again if there was the occasion..." Pepper said, pulling out the keys she used to manually unlock the front door.

"I can get him up and running, Pepper, you forget I built him." Tony replied. As they entered, the place was all too quiet and dark. As Pepper flipped on the lights, Tony found that it was more or less empty. The furniture was gone, and anything else that wasn't actually bolted to the floors or hallways. He turned around to Pepper, questioningly. "What happened to everything?"

"The Board kept pushing me to sell everything after a year. They said it wasn't healthy that I kept it. I conceded in selling everything but the actual house, two beds, and the audi." Pepper answered in a defeated tone.

"What about the suit, and my robots down in the workshop?!" Tony asked, now sounding slightly desperate. "They took the silver one, but no one could figure out where the Iron Man suit was, so thats safe were ever you have it. They also took your robots." Tony cursed under his breathe.

"I'm sorry." Pepper said quietly. "It's not your fault, Don't worry about it." He said, moving towards the stairs leading down to his workshop. "Jake come on." He said, the boy who had been wandering around snapped to attention and ran over to help Tony down the stairs again.

--

"Mr. Stark it is good to hear your voice again." Just like that the house came alive. Pepper watched with amazement as Tony had twore open the main circuit board in his workshop and punched three buttons.

"Good to hear you again too, Jarvis." Tony replied, smiling for what she could tell was a real one the first time that day. "I'll have you fully running in no time..." He said, moving slowly towards the work bench that had four monitors and other equipment that was attached to the desk. It was all coated with a thick layer of dust, but that didn't seem to stop Tony from powering the computer up and sitting down, with some cringing involved -Pepper noted. Jake was standing right next to him in awe of the technology around him.

As soon as the computers were up and running, Tony opened Jarvis's main program and started the full re-boot sequence, which took about an hour. Pepper pulled up two chairs, one for herself and one for Jake. It wasn't until twenty or so minutes into it that Tony noticed Jake yawn. He paused and glanced over to the boy who was slouching in his chair.

"Maybe you should go to bed." Tony told him. "But I want to see this, Tony!" Jake whined, and for the first moment Pepper could remember actually sounded more like his age. "Pepper can you find him a bed?" He looked at her for a moment, pleading quietly in his eyes, silently saying he couldn't get up himself. She nodded and stood up.

"Come on Jake." She held out a hand to take the boy. Jake looked at his father, tears welling up in his eyes. "Let me stay, Please, I'll be good!" He whined. "You're tired, You need your sleep." Tony scolded. "...but I can't sleep without my nightlight!" He continued, a tear actually falling this time. "Nightlight?" Pepper asked, confused. "My arc reactor..." Tony replied softly, leaning over to Jake and kissing him on the forehead. "You're just going to have to make do, I have a little more work to do. I'll be up soon, I promise." He said, patting him on the head before pulling back up again. Jake glared at him for a moment before conceding finally and letting Pepper take him to a bed.

Pepper was rather suprised that Jake literally fell asleep as soon as he crawled into the queen-sized bed in Tony's master bedroom, curling around one of the pillows. She returned to the workshop to find Tony with his head in his hands, leaning over the computer. As she edged closer she could hear the telltale sounds of crying.

She creeped up on him easily, resting a quiet comforting hand on his left shoulder. His head shot up, and he jerked around faster then she could comprehend and stared at her with widened eyes. The rims of his eyes were red, and his breathing was erratic, his hands instantly flew up in a defensive position.

"Sh. It's just me." She said quietly. He calmed down slightly, relaxing. He turned again, this time wincing -not being able to hide it either-, and started typing. "How much pain are you in?" Pepper asked, concerned. "I'm fine, Pepper." He hissed defensively, but she could tell it was a measured breath, biting back something. "No you aren't, Don't lie to me." She replied with a bit of venom in her tone.

"I can handle it." He breathed. "Right, I am going to ask again, and you will answer this time." Pepper growled in return. "How much pain are you in?" She asked in a tone that one shouldn't mess with. He didn't answer for a few seconds, a minute or so even.

"Nothing I can't handle. Pepper, Leave it be. Please." He said, focusing on the monitors infront of him. "You need to see a doctor." She said. "How can I, I'm dead, Remember?" He replied. "I'll be here for a few weeks, I can arrange something." She said.

"Jarvis has scanning capabilities, I can get looked at through that..." He looked at her. "He can tell you whats wrong, but he can't treat you Tony." She seethed. "You can get me what I need to treat me!" He fired back. "It's not the same thing!" She growled. "...I can't lose you again..." She whispered, just barely loud enough for him to hear her.

He turned around to her. "I've been in this situation for six years, If it was a fatal injury, I would have been dead by now." He said in a serious tone. "Tony..."


End file.
